An article in the Journal of
Economic Perspectives estimates that as much as 20 percent of wealth can be attributed to formal and informal gifts from family members, but many people receive little or no assistance.
To put that into
perspective, the current
estimate of oil in place in the oilsands is about 1.8 trillion barrels, but only 10 - 20 per cent of that is economically extractable, and only a small fraction of these
economic reserves are currently under development.